Randolph Bourne

Randolph Silliman Bourne (1886 in Bloomfield, New Jersey - 1918) was a progressive writer best known for his essay, unfinished and found after his death, "War is the Health of the State".

Related Topics:
1886 - Bloomfield, New Jersey - 1918 - Progressive

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Bourne was a student of the educational theorist John Dewey at Columbia University.

Related Topics:
John Dewey - Columbia University

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Bourne's articles appeared in the magazine, The Seven Arts and The New Republic.

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During World War I, American progressives, Bourne included, found themselves split and pitted against each other. The two factions that emerged were the pro-war faction, led by John Dewey, and the anti-war faction, of which both Bourne and other famous progressives like Jane Addams were a part. Bourne took issue with Dewey's idea of using the war as a tool with which to spread democracy, and in his "Twilight of the Idols", argued that America was using democracy as an ends to justify the war, but that democracy itself was never examined. While he was a follower of Dewey originally, he felt that Dewey had betrayed his democratic ideals by focusing only on the facade of a democratic government, rather than on the ideas behind democracy that Dewey had professed to respect.

Related Topics:
World War I - John Dewey - Jane Addams

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Bourne was also a follower of American intellectual Horace Kallen, and argued, like Kallen, that Americanism ought not to be associated with Anglo-Saxonism. He stated that the US should accommodate immigrant cultures, instead of forcing immigrants to assimilate to Anglo culture. He argued that the idea of American identity as specifically Anglo-Saxon should shift to a cosmopolitan identity.

Related Topics:
Horace Kallen - Anglo-Saxon

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Bourne died in the influenza epidemic shortly after the Armistice of World War I.

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